Living in Houston has soured me towards the Texans because of their fans. They are obsessed with the Cowboys. I swear that sometimes I think they want the Cowboys to lose more than they want the Texans to win.

I mean up until last year's playoff victory they still considered 19-10 to be their greatest victory.

• One I'm proud of: There is an NFC team that's taking a step back after finally making the playoffs in 2011, but it's not the 49ers, as quite a few pundits have projected. It's the Lions. Detroit will score a bundle of points in the passing game, but its secondary and running game are huge question marks, and keeping Matthew Stafford healthy for another 16 games is mandatory.

-- Bottom line: C'mon, that was like predicting Tony Romo would throw a crucial pick in the fourth quarter of the game of the year in Dallas. Some of these are too easy. Now, if I had predicted Minnesota would take Detroit's place as an NFC North wild-card team, that would have been worthy of savant status.